Revision as of 13:59, 7 December 2010

Estonian (eesti keel) is a Finno-Ugric language spoken by roughly 1.1 million people in Estonia. Though closely related to Finnish and distantly to Hungarian, Estonian bears almost no resemblance to any other European language in either vocabulary or grammar.

The lack of Indo-European language structures makes Estonian a rather difficult language to learn. The fact that it has more words of Indo-European origin than Finnish, for instance, it is slightly easier to learn. Even though many people in Estonia (especially young people) speak English and many of the older generation understand Russian, an attempt at some basic phrases will definitely impress the locals and you will receive an enthusiastic welcome.

Pronunciation guide

Additionally, the letters c, q, w, x, and y are used in foreign proper names and quotes.

Pronunciation is fairly straightforward. Most words are pronounced as they are written, with a major exception being vowel length (see below).

Vowels

a

like a in father

e

like e in get

i

like ee in flee

o

like o in order

u

like oo in moon

ä

like a in hat

ö

like German ö, similar to e in her

ü

like German ü, similar to ew in few

õ

a uniquely Estonian sound pronounced with the tongue in the same position as the o sound, but with lips unrounded; kind of halfway between the e in get and the u in hung

The duration of vowel sounds can be short, long, or overlong, depending on the word. Short vowels are written with one letter, long and overlong vowels with two. Overlong vowels often change the pitch or stress of the syllable as well as the duration. There is no written distinction between long and overlong vowels. Example:

short

sada (SAH-dah)

→

one hundred

long

saada (SAAH-dah)

→

send!

overlong

saada (SAAAH-dah)

→

to get

Consonants

c

like ts in hats

h

silent at the beginning of a word; before a vowel like English h; before a consonant harshly pronounced guttural h

j

like y in yes

q

like k in kitchen

r

trilled, like Spanish rr

s

like s in soap

š

like sh in shoe

ž

like s in measure

w

like v in very

x

like x in excite [ks sound]

b d f g k l m n p t v y z

pronounced as in English

Consonants can appear doubled, such as kk, pp, tt, etc., and are pronounced by inserting a glottal stop or prolonging the duration of the consonant.

Diphthongs

ae

as the 'ie' in "diet" [two sounds]

ai

as the 'ai' in "aisle"

äe

as the 'ae' in "aesthetic"

Stress

The first syllable of a word is always stressed except foreign words which can have an accent mark showing the stressed syllable. For example: Améerika (ah-MEHH-ree-kah).